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Author Topic: Calling Russ  (Read 4015 times)

William Walker

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Calling Russ
« on: February 09, 2013, 12:36:04 am »

Hi Russ

Am I correct in thinking that you were in the U.S.A.F. during the Vietnam era?

Regards
William
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stamper

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Re: Calling Russ
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2013, 04:42:53 am »

Is private messaging not working?

William Walker

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Re: Calling Russ
« Reply #2 on: February 10, 2013, 06:33:19 am »

Hey Stamper

Pleased to see you haven't mellowed in your old age....stick around - you might learn something....:)
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stamper

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Re: Calling Russ
« Reply #3 on: February 10, 2013, 07:16:28 am »

Have you found the private messaging yet? It is quite useful for contacting members. ;D

Rob C

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Re: Calling Russ
« Reply #4 on: February 10, 2013, 01:46:45 pm »

Hey Stamper

Pleased to see you haven't mellowed in your old age....stick around - you might learn something....:)



Don't be cruel, Elvis; stamp's right: if you want personal info. that's not offered publicly first, it's mutually advantageous to use the PM functions. You might indeed learn something.

;-)

Rob C

William Walker

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Re: Calling Russ
« Reply #5 on: February 10, 2013, 02:35:22 pm »

Hi Rob

As far as I know Russ has made mention of this in the past...how else would I think that?

I am reading a book about a certain Air Force Colonel - John Boyd - and wondered whether Russ had heard of him (same era, I guess)...an interesting man, Google him. (That's where the "you may learn something" comment came from.)

http://www.amazon.com/Boyd-Fighter-Pilot-Who-Changed/dp/0316796883/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360524793&sr=1-1&keywords=boyd+the+fighter+pilot+who+changed+the+art+of+war

Nothing sinister at all boys, relax.

William
« Last Edit: February 10, 2013, 02:37:50 pm by W. Walker »
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Calling Russ
« Reply #6 on: February 10, 2013, 03:02:20 pm »

Speaking about "learning something"... the search function might come handy as an alternative to PM. You know, entering terms like "Vietnam" and RSL in the search fields. ;)

RSL

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Re: Calling Russ
« Reply #7 on: February 10, 2013, 03:05:29 pm »

Hi William. I was an Air Force officer during Korea and Vietnam both. I flew F-84's out of Taegu at the end of the Korean war. In 1965 I was commander of a radar site in the Vietnam delta and then eight years later I was commander of the group that owned all the remaining radar sites in Southeast Asia. I spent 26 years in the USAF. I didn't know Boyd, but I'd heard of him.

Yeah, you probably should have PM'd me, but I laid all this out a long time ago on here, so it probably doesn't matter.
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Russ Lewis  www.russ-lewis.com.

William Walker

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Re: Calling Russ
« Reply #8 on: February 10, 2013, 03:21:16 pm »

Thanks Russ,

I thought is might be interesting if you had something to add to this story. A truly amazing character! ( I read somewhere that every American should read this book - someone to be really proud of!)

The reason I did not PM you was was because I thought this story would be of interest to a lot of people here, especially because it seems that he is not as well-known as he should be...(I thought the Coffee Corner was the ideal place to share it, particularly if you had some personal knowledge to share....)

William
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Rob C

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Re: Calling Russ
« Reply #9 on: February 11, 2013, 10:06:45 am »

RSL

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Re: Calling Russ
« Reply #10 on: February 11, 2013, 10:17:38 am »

Thanks Rob. But this is what I got when I went to the link:

"This video contains content from Smithsonian Networks, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.

Sorry about that."

The "sorry about that" is priceless. It's a phrase right out of the Vietnam experience, always used sarcastically. Made me want to pick up my M-16 and blow away the monitor.
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Rob C

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Re: Calling Russ
« Reply #11 on: February 11, 2013, 01:47:09 pm »

Thanks Rob. But this is what I got when I went to the link:

"This video contains content from Smithsonian Networks, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.

Sorry about that."

The "sorry about that" is priceless. It's a phrase right out of the Vietnam experience, always used sarcastically. Made me want to pick up my M-16 and blow away the monitor.



Ah! It's a docu. about a couple of helicopter heroes and medics who flew five repeat trips into bamboo jungle, using the fan to chop down the reeds so they could land and rescue ambushed GIs and some officers. You have to salute some of these guys. Maybe being in war gives added courage or perhaps it's simply the fact that you know it would be damned hard to live with yourself if lack of courage resulted in possibly avoidable deaths - even at the risk of your own.

Had an uncle who got the MC and was shot up crossing the Rhine; the only war stories anyone got from him concerned 'romantic' incidents along the way; never, ever, anything about the guns, guts and 'glory'.

Happy to have avoided any of that! But debts live long...

Rob C

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Calling Russ
« Reply #12 on: February 11, 2013, 02:13:02 pm »

... Made me want to pick up my M-16 and blow away the monitor.

Perhaps that's why your monitor does not want to show it to you? ;)

Riaan van Wyk

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Re: Calling Russ
« Reply #13 on: February 11, 2013, 02:17:44 pm »

Fortnately the clip plays, I'll download and watch later- thanks Rob.

Robert Mason wrote a book about his experience as one of these pilots- the book is called Chickenhawk. I might have a spare copy somewhere if you want to read it William, riveting stuff.

WalterEG

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Re: Calling Russ
« Reply #14 on: February 11, 2013, 02:23:38 pm »

The video is viewable in Oz.  Not that I'd watch it.

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RSL

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Re: Calling Russ
« Reply #15 on: February 11, 2013, 03:27:26 pm »


Ah! It's a docu. about a couple of helicopter heroes and medics who flew five repeat trips into bamboo jungle, using the fan to chop down the reeds so they could land and rescue ambushed GIs and some officers. You have to salute some of these guys.

Right, Rob. The guys who flew dustoff were more worthy of salutes than anybody else I can think of in Southeast Asia. Probably the only others who put their lives on the line as often were the "civilian" Air America pilots. One of those guys was a good friend who'd retired and gone to work for Air America to earn enough money to buy an orange grove in Florida. Shortly after he'd made enough for his grove and was ready to hang it up he got himself killed in the right seat of a C-130 over Laos by what we used to call "the magic bb." Some guy on the ground with a rifle just got lucky. Then there were the "ravens," the "sheep-dipped" pilots who flew lightplanes as spotters for the Hmong in Laos. Check The Ravens: Pilots of the Secret War in Laos by Chris Robbins. I knew a couple of those guys too, people who'd been in pilot training with me. Their attrition rate was about 50%. It was a nasty but necessary war, stupidly conducted by our politicians.
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RSL

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Re: Calling Russ
« Reply #16 on: February 11, 2013, 03:29:37 pm »

The video is viewable in Oz.  Not that I'd watch it.

Haven't been to The Emerald City for a long time Walter. I'm waiting for the next twister to take me there.
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William Walker

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Re: Calling Russ
« Reply #17 on: February 12, 2013, 01:43:04 am »

Hi Riaan

Thanks for the offer, I am pretty sure I have read it. Thanks anyway!

The Boyd book is really not a "combat" book at all. He was the top instructor at the "Weapons School" at Nellis - the airforce version to "Top Gun". He then went on to much headier stuff in terms of air-combat tactics and fighter aircraft design.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy-Maneuverability_theory

To read of his "battles" in the Pentagon is mind-boggling, and in a way, perversely comforting for someone who lives in a country where greed, corruption and self-interest are rife. It seems to happen in the best of places!

Air forces around the world have borrowed from the work of this amazing and complex man. (At least someone learned something... ;)...even the Scottish Airforce?)







  
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Rob C

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Re: Calling Russ
« Reply #18 on: February 12, 2013, 04:16:36 am »

Haven't been to The Emerald City for a long time Walter. I'm waiting for the next twister to take me there.


Nobody seems to have documented whether Dorothy did or did not manage to keep her skirts held firmly down. I often worry about that.

Rob C
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